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Students Loans for Higher Education in Scotland 2007-08
12/06/2008
Statistics on student loans for higher education in Scotland for the financial year 2007-2008 have been published jointly today by the Student Loans Company (SLC) and Scotland's Chief Statistician.
Key findings include:
- The amount lent to eligible higher education (HE) students for maintenance loans during the financial year 2007-2008 was £192.8 million, an increase of five per cent compared with 2006-2007
- The amount lent to eligible HE students for graduate endowment loans during financial year 2007-2008 was £14.4m, an increase of 19 per cent compared with 2006-2007
- The total amount lent to eligible HE students during financial year 2007-2008 was £212.8 million, an increase of eight per cent compared to 2006-2007
- The balance outstanding (including loans not yet due for repayment) at the end of the financial year 2007-2008 was £2,052.5 million, an increase of 11 per cent compared with 2006-2007. The balance outstanding on income contingent loans was £1,883.2 million, an increase of 13 per cent compared with 2006-2007
- At the end of 2007-2008 there were 370,000 borrowers; of these, 271,000 (73 per cent) had accounts which were in the process of being repaid, increases of five per cent and nine per cent respectively, compared with 2006-2007
- The average outstanding balance was £5,550. This includes all those with an outstanding balance, those students still in HE, those finished HE but not yet making repayments, and those who have been making repayments for several years
This publication updates previous statistics on student loans for higher education in Scotland 2006-2007, published on August 21, 2007. The statistics were compiled by the Student Loans Company (SLC) and include public sector loans only, made and repaid on both an income contingent basis and a mortgage style basis. This is the second year for which figures for Scotland have been published separately to those for the other UK administrations. Statistics for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be published on June 17, 2008.
This publication relates to Scottish domiciled higher education students and EU domiciled higher education students studying in Scotland. Higher education refers to any qualification at HNC/HND level or above.
The graduate endowment was introduced for Scottish domiciled and EU domiciled higher education students studying in Scotland who commenced studying in 2001. It was a one-off payment made in recognition of the higher education benefits received and could be paid by paying the full amount in cash, by taking a student loan or by a combination of the two. The Graduate Endowment Abolishment (Scotland) Act 2008 came into force on April 1 this year, abolishing the graduate endowment fee for all students who graduated on or after the April 1, 2007. Therefore the financial year 2007-08 will be the last year that student loans for graduate endowment will be taken out, with the small exception of postgraduate students who had previously deferred payment of the graduate endowment. Those loans will carry over into financial year 2008/2009.
In academic year 2006-2007 fee loans were introduced for Scottish domiciled students studying in the rest of the UK to allow them to defer payment of their tuition fees. The repayment of fee loans is no different to that of maintenance loans.
The annual Retail Price Index (RPI) from March to March is used as the interest rate for all types of student loan from the following September to August. In financial year 2007-2008 the interest rates used to adjust the outstanding balances were 2.4 per cent (as measured by the March 2006 RPI) up to the end of August and 4.8 per cent (as measured by the March 2007 RPI) from the beginning of September.
The Student Awards Agency for Scotland's website gives information and guidance on support for higher education students in Scotland.
National statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff.